Teacher-Education Enrollments Seen Rising in Survey

After steady declines during much of the past decade, the number of
students training to be teachers has stabilized and may be increasing,
according to preliminary results from a new national survey.

The findings for the first time provide more than anecdotal
information that the number of students preparing to be teachers may be
on the rise.

The study found that between 1984 and 1985, the average number of
teacher-education students at the institutions surveyed rose by 3
percent, from about 630 to 651. The data include both undergraduate and
graduate-level students and those studying full and part time.

Teacher educators and others said last week that they were
encouraged by the findings. They noted, however, that the slight
increase over one year does not necessarily indicate the beginning of
an upward trend in education-school enrollments.

The findings, which were made public on Feb. 13 at the annual
meeting of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education,
are based on a survey conducted over the past year of 76 representative
institutions from among the approximately 1,250 colleges and
universities that prepare teachers.

The survey, which is based primarily on 1985 data, was conducted by
AACTE's committee on research and information. It is the first of what
the association says will be an annual survey of institutions that
train teachers.

In addition to the enrollment data, this year's survey includes
demographic information on teacher-education students, general
information on teacher-education programs, and attitudinal surveys of
education-school faculty members.

"This is the first time anybody has set out to develop an ongoing
data base on teacher-training institutions with a high level of
accuracy,'' said Sam J. Yarger, dean of the school of education at the
University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and chairman of the research
committee that conducted the study.

The colleges and universities surveyed, he said, were randomly
selected from three strata of institutions: those offering only
bachelor's degrees, those offering bachelor's and master's degrees, and
those offering bachelor's and master's degrees and doctorates.

Shortage Not Addressed

"What we have found is that enrollments are steady and increasing
slightly,'' said Gary Galluzzo, associate professor of teacher
education at Western Kentucky University and a member of the six-member
team that conducted the study.

"We aren't touching the question of the teacher shortage here,'' Mr.
Galluzzo said. "We just think that the findings indicate that more
people are going into education. And we think that is encouraging.''
After next year's survey, he said, "we will see if we can be more
optimistic.''

'Long Way To Go'

Arthur E. Wise, director of the RAND Corporation's center for the
study of the teaching profession, said the findings were "not
surprising.''

"It is good to see that the trend is in the right direction,'' Mr.
Wise said. "But we need to keep in mind that the 3 percent increase is
over a relatively low base. The number of graduates of
teacher-education institutions is roughly half of what it was a decade
ago.''

"We have a long way to go to produce a supply of teachers that will
be adequate for the likely demand,'' he continued. "A 3 percent rise
won't do it.''

According to Mr. Galluzzo, the survey findings also hint that a
number of the popularly held perceptions about teacher-training
programs and the students enrolled in them might not be valid.

For example, he said, the survey found that students preparing to
teach at the secondary and elementary levels take an average of about
40 credit hours, or one-third of their course load, in their academic
major--roughly the same number of credits that non-education students
take in their majors.

"The general opinion is that [education schools] have replaced
content in academic areas with courses in how to teach.'' Mr. Galluzzo
said. "But we have data here that looks like that is not the
case.''

Bolstering that data, he said, are survey findings showing that
students preparing to teach high-school mathematics and English take an
average of 7.5 credits in methods courses, the equivalent of only two
or three courses.

"This counters the argument that our students spend all their time
taking education courses,'' Mr. Galluzzo said.

'Not Dummies'

In addition, the survey revealed that high-school scores on the
Scholastic Aptitude Test for students enrolled in teacher-education
programs are, on average, not as low as previous reports have
indicated, Mr. Galluzzo said.

For example, he said, an earlier report by the College Board had
stated that high-school juniors who, in 1983, were considering a career
in teaching had an average combined SAT score of 812, out of a total
possible score of 1600.

The AACTE survey found, however, that the average combined S.A.T.
score for education students in the 20 survey institutions that kept
such data was 927 for those preparing to teach elementary school and
981 for those preparing to teach high school.

The survey also found that prospective elementary and secondary
teachers enter training programs with a college grade-point average of
2.92.

Both findings, Mr. Galluzzo said, indicate that "our students tend
to be good 'B' students, not the dummies that we are characterized as
getting.''

Faculty Views

The survey also queried faculty members at responding institutions
about the teacher-training programs with which they were
affiliated.

Asked if their programs provided students with enough time "to
achieve the level of knowledge and skill appropriate for a beginning
teacher,'' 67 percent of faculty members said there was enough time for
such mastery, and 3.8 percent suggested there was more than enough
time. Almost 30 percent, however, said there was not enough time.

Roughly three out of four responding faculty members characterized
their programs as "better than average'' or "excellent,'' while one out
of five assessed their program as "average.'' Only one out of 20
faculty members ranked their program "below average'' or "poor.''

Asked to assess the "knowledge base'' for teacher preparation in
relation to that of a decade ago, more than 85 percent of the
responding faculty members said there had been moderate to considerable
improvement.

Student Characteristics

Survey data collected on a representative sample of students
enrolled in the teacher-training programs revealed the following:

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